Big Country VOAD advises best ways to help West

Thomas Metthe/Reporter-News
Sam Blackwell, maintenance supervisor at Salvation Army, loads up the mobile canteen before it leaves Friday afternoon for a week to help with the relief efforts in West.

Tommy Metthe/Abilene Reporter-News

Thomas Metthe/Reporter-News
Salvation Army employees Denise Miguel (center) and Barbara Alonzo (right) carry supplies to be loaded into the Salvation Army mobile canteen Friday afternoon,. The canteen is going to West for a week to help support the relief efforts after the fertilizer plant explosion Wednesday night.

The Big Country Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) is encouraging those who want to donate to or otherwise help those affected by the West, Texas, fertilizer plant explosion to do so, but wisely.

Right now, donations of clothes and toiletries are not needed, said Esther Kissell, the Big Country VOAD chair, on Friday.

But donations of building and construction materials, furniture, appliances, such as refrigerators, and other household items are appreciated, she said.

And monetary donations, Kissell said, are always a good idea.

"In a time of disaster, the people that are right there handling donation management and meeting the immediate needs of people have relationships with big places like Home Depot and Wal-Mart," she noted.

Such relationships mean that donated dollars can "go a lot further" than they might, providing flexibility to meet immediate needs while avoiding added transportation costs of items that may not be actually needed at a disaster scene.

According to an earlier news release from the Big Country VOAD, sending too much of the wrong asset creates what emergency management calls a "disaster within a disaster."

For example, the release noted, "if cases and cases and truckloads of food are gathered and then shipped unrequested to an incident scene, then storage issues are created, subsequent transportation issues are created, and food safety issues are created."

"Everyone means well, everybody wants to do

something, and that's wonderful," Kissell said of the typical response after a large-scale disaster.

But imagine, she said, a football game where, after the team has trained and learned its coordinated plays, fans rushed the field "trying to help."

"We need to make a coordinated effort to be as effective as possible," she said of the effort to help West.

Those who are not first responders or attached to an existing disaster response group should first sign up at www.volunteertx.org to stay connected about efforts concerning the disaster.

The site is not able to match people to specific volunteer opportunities, but will provide those who register with regular updates on where to get information on volunteering, emergency management training, etc.

For those wanting to donate, there are currently two options:

One, you can donate online at tinyurl.com/bk9rv2b.

Organizations taking donations to the community of West itself should drop them off at one of the following warehouse locations:

The main donation center at West Fest Fairgrounds, 1110 S. Main St., West.